

E49 - Insights from an Editor with Nathaniel Hendren
Jan 28, 2025
In this discussion, Nathaniel Hendren, a renowned MIT economist and director of Opportunity Insights, shares his wealth of knowledge on public policy evaluation. He explains the marginal value of public funds and its crucial role in effective policy-making. Hendren also touches on the challenges of communicating complex economic impacts and offers valuable advice to budding scholars about journal submissions. Plus, he emphasizes the importance of accountability in academic publishing, providing listeners with a deeper understanding of the economics landscape.
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Stata and the Obama Campaign
- Nathaniel Hendren learned Stata while working for the Obama campaign in 2008.
- He built regression models to predict supporters and target phone calls.
Policy Evaluation with MVPF
- Policy Impacts promotes using the Marginal Value of Public Funds (MVPF) statistic.
- MVPF helps compare policy effectiveness by considering benefits per dollar spent.
Benefits vs. Costs in Policy
- Quantifying policy benefits is harder than quantifying costs.
- Long-run fiscal benefits often make policies seem cheaper over time.